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Who is Kim Barrett? Changing Her Experiments From Chemistry to Physiology Kim was born in London, England. She is not really sure when she got interested in science, but as far back as she can remember she liked experiments and chemistry. When she was seven, she remembers checking all of the science books out of the children’s section at the library. When she was done with those, she checked all of the adult books out. She also begged her parents all the time until they bought her a chemistry set for Christmas. It took a while, but she did every one of the 80 experiments in the set. Kim never really thought about studying anything but science. Teachers were a very important part of her life, especially her first chemistry teacher in high school and the two teachers who taught her chemistry later on in high school. Her teachers made sure she was ready when it came time to go to college. They made sure she had studied biology as well as chemistry. College YearsKim went to University College in the center of London. She loved London (still does) and was excited about being able to study and live in the center of the city instead of out in the suburbs. She also heard there was a new course that was going to be taught, which would teach both chemistry and biology at the same time. Kim was the first in her whole family to go to college – both of her parents quit school when they were 14 because it was during the Second World War. So she didn’t really know what to expect at college. However, when she got there, she found that it wasn’t scary at all and she felt like she belonged there. She saw how friendly the teachers were and how much they liked their jobs. It wasn’t long before Kim knew she wanted to be a teacher and work at a college too. She started off studying chemistry. It took a little while, but she finally realized that she was not going to be any good as a chemist. So she changed and started studying biology and found a teacher to work with. As she was almost done with college, Kim had to decide where to go to get her Ph.D. degree that would allow her to be a college teacher and do research. Kim decided to stay at University College in London and work in the same biology lab. That teacher was another person who was very important to her. He kept her going when experiments didn’t always turn out right. Kim still was not really a physiologist though. She got her Ph.D. in biological chemistry, which is an area where people use biology and chemistry together to answer questions. Her research was different than other peoples because she was studying how the body fights off sickness and diseases (called immunology). Coming to the United StatesAfter getting her Ph.D., Dr. Barrett began to think about where she should go for more training in research. Her teacher told her to think about going to the United States for a couple of years. She thought about it and decided it would be good for her to do that and then come back to England to get a job in a college. Up until then Dr. Barrett had never really even left her home town. So this was a very big deal for her to think about going across the ocean to live and work. Dr. Barrett came to the US to do her training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. She was still studying immunology. But when her time in the US was almost over and it was time to go back home, she didn’t want to leave. She had a steady boyfriend and didn’t want to leave him. Besides, the government in England was not giving much money to its colleges and so there weren’t jobs for her to go back for. She was lucky to be called by a researcher at the University of California in San Diego who asked her to come and work with him. That was when Dr. Barrett finally started studying physiology. She looked at how the cells from the immune system work with the cells that are on the inside of the gut moving water and salt in and out. After that, she’s never looked back. Physiology has been her science. Getting Her Own LabAfter a year or two working in that lab, Dr. Barrett was able to get money to do her own research and became the college teacher she always wanted to be. She even had her own lab and people working for her. At that point she also had the chance to teach physiology to students that want to be doctors. She still likes teaching those students today. When she first decided she wanted to do research and teach at a college, Dr. Barrett liked the idea of being able to discover new things and then teach students about those new things. She thought it would make her life interesting and always changing. She was right. What she didn’t know was how much she would like having every day be different and being able to decide what she was going to do each day. She also loves having the chance to help the people in charge of the college decide what the college will do in the future and what changes are needed. She also likes to work with groups that have members from all over the world, like the APS. Finally, while Dr. Barrett is not trained to be a doctor, she likes being in a college that trains doctors. She enjoys having to make sure that the research she does is important and helps people who are sick. Everyday LifeOn a usual day, Dr. Barrett does many different things. She watches over the research being done by the people in her lab (this usually means she tries to stay out of their way!). She writes and reads papers about her research and other people’s research. She spends time writing up her ideas for new research to send to the different places that give out money for research. She teaches about the physiology of the gut to students who want to be doctors and researchers. She also is on a lot of committees and does other things with the people running the college. Dr. Barrett has been very active with the APS. She has been in charge of one of the magazines that APS prints. She was elected by all the members in APS to be on Council and help run everything. This year (2005) she was asked to be in charge of all the magazines APS prints (14 of them), which is a very important position. Finally, Dr. Barrett has just written a book that will be used in classes about the physiology of the gut. She hopes to see it in print very soon! ResearchDr. Barrett’s lab works on the cells that cover the inside of the gut. These cells have a very important job to keep the body and the outside world separate. They cover a huge amount of area because of how long the gut is. They have to keep out harmful things while still letting the good things, like food, in. She studies how these cells can take salt and water into and out of the gut and how they protect the body from bad bacteria that make people sick. By understanding how these cells work, Dr. Barrett hopes she can some day find ways to help do away with these kinds of sicknesses.
When Not at Work
In her free time, Dr. Barrett loves cook, either just for her and her husband or for friends. They have just moved back into a house that they have been fixing up for a year. A big part of the project was her dream kitchen. She loves cooking in it. She also loves spending time with her family, although they are all rather far away and she can’t do as much of that as she’d like. She has two sisters, a brother, and six nieces and nephews, as well as a godson back in England. Her other interests are watching movies (she likes foreign movies and the ones that are a little different), going to the theatre, and listening to music from opera to rock. Finally, she loves to travel, whether it is for work or fun. Her husband and she made a great trip to Australia and New Zealand last year, and they’re having fun trying to decide where to go this year.
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